Aftermarket climate control panel?

[Bearmat]

I have spent hours searching the threads and haven't found what I am looking for. I have a 1978 Bronco with factory air. I am in the planning stages of a custom dash. I would rather not include the factory heat and a/c panel in the new dash. The one in my dash is on its last legs and it just wouldn't look right in the new dash anyways. Are there any aftermarket panels that would basically plug and play with the existing system? Or will I just have to live with the factory look?

[Steve83]

What does the stock panel actually do? Is it all-electric? Or are there cables & rods? What about vacuum? Does it look like this?

[Bearmat]

I haven't tore mine out yet to see what is involved. This is all in the planning stages. But this is what the 1978 panel looks like:


And this is a top view of the guts:

[jowens1126]

This would be a cool project. Rip all the A/C Guts (I mean Everything) Ducts and all from a Newer Truck and fab it into your truck. Might be easier to cut the section of Firewall from the newer truck and weld it in.

I bet you could swap in a 94 Dash too for the ducting, not to say its any better than your 78.

Would be cool though.
Ive been wanting to, Way down the road, buy a donor 2010 F150 or F250 and swap in the dash and Climate control.

[BigBud]

Red Dot? I know they make control panels, but my catalog is at work. It's an interesting idea. I'll look into it tomorrow as I am looking to make my ac system come back to life this year.

[Steve83]

That looks basically the same as '80-86, which would look newer, if that's what you want. Then, late'88-91 is virtually the same, with another slightly-newer look, but you'd have to find a new home for the rear window control. And '92-96 has basically the same outputs, but with knobs instead of slides. '87-early'88 does almost the same, but it has only 1 independent vacuum control; everything else is cable & electric, and the layout is totally different.

. . .

You shouldn't have much trouble making any of them work, and they'll cost you a LOT less than some aftermarket POS panel that isn't specifically made to operate a Ford truck HVAC system, or specifically built to fit a Ford dash.

[Bearmat]

Thanks Steve. I will just go see what the local yards have in the way of Broncos and pull one of the newer units. Looks way easier than trying to get an aftermarket panel such as one from vintage air to work. And would be cheaper than replacing the whole system.

[Steve83]

It doesn't have to be from a Bronco. Almost all Ford HVAC controls do the same things, except the luxury automatic electronic ones, and the later standard ones that use electric servos instead of cables or vacuum.

[JBfab]

I got a white faced panel for my 94. You just peel off the plastic face of the stock one and stick the aftermarket one on. Gives it a new look, they might have one for yours on ebay. I must say for $10 its worth it.